E.ON to auction 30% of UK power on exchange

German utility E.ON have signed an agreement to trade more than 30% of its UK-based power generation on the day-ahead auction of the N2EX power exchange, the company said.

It will also buy a matching volume in electricity from the exchange to cover its retail sales.

“We want to see a credible and sustainable auction index that can be relied upon consistently - achieving this will give the confidence to new participants to take part in the auction and related OTC (over-the-counter) contracts,” said E.ON UK Chief Executive Tony Cocker in a statement.

In October UK utility SSE committed to selling all of its power generation on the day-ahead market by the end of March.

Britain’s ‘Big Six’ utilities have come under increasing pressure from the government and energy regulator Ofgem to open their power generation to third parties to allow smaller companies access to the market.
Ofgem has proposed to force the largest producers to auction off up to 20% of the electricity they generate to boost competition.